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colour, with the stem of each feather black ; the remainder of 
the under surface rufous brown, with a central line of dark 
brown on each feather, which is broadest and most conspicuous 
on the chest; cere, gape, and base of the lower mandible yel- 
low; upper mandible and point of the lower, black; tarsi of 
toes yellow ; claws, black ; irides very dark brown.” 
He gives no dimensions, (why are European ornithologists 
invariably so careless about these matters?) but the following 
are some dimensions taken from a skin in my own collection, said 
to be of a male: length, 24; wing, 16°75; tail, 10°6; tarsus, 
1‘9; mid toe to root of claw, 1°45; its claw straight, 0°7 ; hind 
toe, 0°8; its claw, straight, 0°78 ; bill from edge of cere to point, 
straight, 0-98 ; bill from gape, 1°65 ; height at front, at margin 
of cere, 0°5; cere only, 0°5. The central tail feathers are 1:9 
shorter than the external one. The fourth primary is the long- 
est ; the first is 4°7, the second 1°6, and the third 0:07 shorter. 
It is only right to notice, that I have Indian specimens in 
my collection, to my (perhaps unpractised) eye, absolutely 
undistinguishable from this specimen sent me from Australia, 
by Gerrard Krefft, Esquire. 
As regards MW. Melanotis, I have neither description nor 
measurements by me. Radde and Schrenk affirm, that it is not 
specifically distinct from ‘‘ Niger’ 7. e. Migrans, and say, “If we 
collate together the described differences of colour, the charac- 
ter of the eastern form (Jelanotis) will be found to consist in 
this, that a more pronounced contrast (in the young extending 
to portions of individual feathers) exists between the clear, 
yellowish and dark, grey brown shades, while in the western 
form (Migrans) the colours blend into an almost uniform, (and 
with advancing age, more and more predominating) ferruginous 
brown.” And Radde goes on to affirm, that specimens of the 
European Niger, (or Migrans, Bodd, and this latter name has 
the priority) have been obtained, showing the brighter plumage 
of melanotis. 
It is clear from this, that whether distinct or not, Melanotis 
and Migrans, cannot differ much in size. Of Aligrans (which 
he calls Ater) Bree gives the length 22 inches, and of a male, 
2V inches, with the wing 17. 
Layard, who unites both Affinis and Govinda with Migrans, 
(in which, however, he is clearly wrong, because the latter is 
distinct, whatever the former two may be) gives the length as 
21, the wing at 18 and the tail at 10 inches. 
The dimensions of Me/anofis, must, since the distinctness of 
the species is disputed by so many writers, be very similar, 
and it must therefore be a much smaller bird than the one 
